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Modern Love:

A Comparison of Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity and Juliet, Naked.

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Arnar Ásmundsson

Maí 2011

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Enska

Modern Love:

A Comparison of Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity and Juliet, Naked.

Ritgerð til B.A.-prófs

Arnar Ásmundsson

Kt.: 230476-4389

Leiðbeinandi: Ingibjörg Ágústsdóttir

Maí 2011

Abstract

In 1995 Nick Hornby published his first novel, High Fidelity, a story about obsession, love

and the complications of modern life. Hornby published Juliet, Naked in 2009, where he

tackles similar topics to those in High Fidelity. A key difference between these novels is the

presence of the Internet in Juliet, Naked, which is not featured in High Fidelity. A comparison

of Juliet, Naked and High Fidelity offers an interesting insight into Hornby‟s vision of life

before and after the spread of the Internet, and how it has affected the characters‟ obsessions,

communication and their lives in general.

This essay is, however, not limited to the changes the Internet has brought, as other topics are

discussed in the essay‟s several chapters. The first chapter is a general introduction and is

followed by a chapter containing background information on both Hornby and the novels, as

well as illustrating how these novels were received by critics. The third chapter tackles a

dominant theme in both books, obsession, especially male obsession with popular culture. The

ensuing chapter deals with love and its complications, and how it is presented in both novels.

The fifth chapter focuses on the Internet and the benefits and limitations it brings to modern

life. The following chapter addresses the role of women in Juliet, Naked and High Fidelity,

and how women are represented by Hornby, who has been labelled a lad lit writer. The last

chapter concludes the essay with a general overview of the themes tackled in the previous

chapters.

Contents

1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 1

2. Background ............................................................................................................................ 2

3. Obsession ............................................................................................................................... 6

4. Love ...................................................................................................................................... 12

5. Technology ........................................................................................................................... 17

6. Women ................................................................................................................................. 21

7. Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 25

Works Cited .............................................................................................................................. 27

Ásmundsson 1

1. Introduction

In the last two decades, the computer and the Internet have had their impact on modern

life. In 1995, at the dawn of this new era, Nick Hornby published his first novel, High

Fidelity1. It is a pre-Internet story about Rob, a record store owner and a pop music obsessive,

who is revaluating his life in the aftermath of a break-up. In 2009 Hornby published another

novel called Juliet, Naked2, which tackles themes similar to those in High Fidelity; those of

pop culture obsession, struggling relationships, male identity and of course love. No

knowledge of High Fidelity is required to appreciate Juliet Naked; however, it can be

maintained that familiarity with the former book gives the readers of the latter a wider

perspective because of the novels‟ reciprocal subject matter.

The most prominent difference between the books is the presence of the Internet in

Juliet, Naked, and how it affects modern life. Despite technological advances and the changes

they bring, at the heart of both books are human stories about people trying to find love,

happiness and in some cases, their identity. In his simple, unpretentious but effective style,

Hornby creates interesting stories about complex but flawed people going through everyday

life and the problems that they have.

Hornby‟s books have been labelled as lad lit, which could lead to the assumption that

these are book about men for men. That is, however, not the case as Hornby depicts men as

more immature and irresponsible than women, who are the voice of reason. Furthermore, the

main character of Juliet, Naked is a woman who shares the narrative with two male

characters, which is a departure from High Fidelity which has a sole male narrator.

A comparison between High Fidelity and Juliet, Naked shows that people‟s priorities

and problems are still the same despite the spread of the Internet.

1 All references to High Fidelity will be abbreviated HF.

2 All references to Juliet, Naked will be abbreviated JN.

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2. Background

Nick Hornby‟s first novel, High Fidelity, features the protagonist Rob; a man in his

mid-thirties who is unable to find his purpose in life. At the beginning of the book Rob is

contemplating the recent break-up with his long-term girlfriend Laura, who has left him for

another man. What follows is a period of soul-searching for Rob, as he tries to find closure for

all of his former relationships with women. Along the way, Rob exposes his relationship with

Laura and the reasons she had for ending the relationship. Furthermore, through Rob, the

world of pop music fanatics is introduced. Rob runs an independent record store in London,

where he and his employees, Barry and Dick, live in their own little world dominated by

popular culture and top five lists. As the story progresses, Rob tries to find his lost passion

again and to breathe life back to into his relationship with Laura as he finally decides what

really matters to him.

Juliet, Naked does not stray far away from its predecessor, for it also features men

obsessed with music, but in the years between the novels considerable technological advances

have affected modern life. The novel is about the strange love triangle of three people, Annie,

Duncan and Tucker. Annie and Duncan are a couple living in a small English town called

Gooleness, while Tucker is a retired and reclusive American musician who is unable to

maintain a relationship with anyone but his youngest child. Tucker has always been a

presence in Annie and Duncan‟s relationship as the latter‟s fascination with the musician has

gone beyond what can be considered normal. Annie and Duncan‟s already fragile relationship

begins to unravel after they declare their opposite opinions on an album by Tucker Crowe,

called Juliet, Naked. It features demo versions of the songs on Tucker‟s most beloved album,

Juliet, which was inspired by Tucker‟s break-up with a woman named Julie. Both Annie and

Duncan post their individual review on a website Duncan created in honour of his hero,

Tucker Crowe, and through this same website an electronic friendship between Annie and

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Tucker is established. Ironically, the man who can be partly blamed for the end of the strange

relationship between Annie and Duncan becomes the object of Annie‟s affection and later her

lover. In an interview with The Telegraph Hornby explained how the story of Juliet, Naked

came about: “The initial spur for the book was seeing this article in Vanity Fair about Sly

Stone [another famously reclusive rocker]. But that also fed into some other stuff I‟d been

thinking about – mainly about how the internet has allowed people like Duncan to spend all

day talking to one another” (Hornby, “Nick Hornby interview”).

High Fidelity, along with Hornby‟s autobiographical Fever Pitch, and his third book,

About a Boy, pushed him to the forefront of a genre called lad lit, which Elaine Showalter

describes as “romantic, comic, popular male confessional literature”. All three books share the

same theme, of men whose lifestyle does not rhyme with the conventional lives of their

contemporaries. Juliet, Naked shares many of the sentiments of the lad lit genre with one large

exception; the main character is a woman. The book depicts a similar suspect male behaviour

as in High Fidelity but with the added female perspective. Despite what literary genre these

books belong to, Hornby has written human stories that appeal to men and women alike,

albeit not for the same reason according John Crace, “Male readers love him because he

writes to their condition; women like him because he confirms what they've always suspected

about the limitations of the male mind”.

The similarities between High Fidelity and Juliet, Naked did not escape the critics

upon the release of the latter. Laurence Phelan says, “Being about relationships, male

emotional retardation and obsessive musical fandom, Juliet, Naked will appeal to those

Hornby readers who still consider High Fidelity his funniest and finest novel”. Phelan goes on

comparing the novels by using a cultural reference in the style of Hornby himself, “But it's a

more mature work, about older people with a greater inertial force acting upon them, and

more keenly felt regrets: the Blood on the Tracks to High Fidelity's Freewheelin' Bob Dylan.

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It is also very much in a minor key”. Niall Stanage from the Wall Street Journal is convinced

that Juliet, Naked falls nicely into place with Hornby‟s previous books: “„Juliet, Naked‟ will

neither win over his detractors nor disappoint his admirers”. Like Phelan, Stanage draws

comparison between Juliet, Naked and High Fidelity, “„Juliet, Naked‟ is solid but lacks the

punch of the superb „High Fidelity‟”. Traci McNamara does not share Stanage‟s opinion

stating, “Juliet, Naked will delight Nick Hornby's loyal fans, and it's sure to attract a new

following”. Further, Janet Maslin writes in The New York Times, “In maneuvering and

manipulating these characters, Mr. Hornby, the author of „High Fidelity,‟ is on safe and

inviting terrain. He knows all about the get-a-life pop-cultural obsessive who can devote

himself to the study of someone else‟s career and declare himself a „world expert‟ on the

subject”. Hornby‟s fellow writer Julie Myerson seconds Maslin‟s opinion stating, “No one

writes about music, and the emotional space it takes up, like Hornby”. However, Hornby‟s

decision to tackle familiar topics does not please all critics, Ron Charles writes, “Still, I can‟t

help feeling a little disappointed that this immensely talented writer isn‟t willing to move

outside his comfort zone. So much of this new novel recalls his earlier work, including a

tendency toward cloying moralizing, and 400 pages is a lot to balance on the back of one‟s

charm”. While the reviews might influence the potential reader of Hornby‟s books, they do

not seem to bother Hornby:

The thing is, I don‟t get a lot of pleasure from good reviews while bad ones can hurt.

And they all tend to be much the same, don‟t they? A 300-word synopsis, 300 words

recapping your career and 300 words saying you‟re either an a??? or you‟re not.

People claim you can learn a lot from reading reviews, but I‟m not sure if that‟s true. I

mean, I‟ve spent a lot more time thinking about the book than they have. (Hornby,

“Nick Hornby interview”)

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Hornby‟s most distinct writing characteristic is his simple style; he does not rely on

difficult words and complicated metaphors to convey his message. Hornby‟s charm comes

from his humorous observations about everyday life. Fellow writer Chris Savage King has

described Hornby as “a relaxed and natural writer” and compared him to “a nice squashy sofa

into which you can settle in comfort, knowing you won't be bored or disappointed”. The

Guardian calls Hornby‟s style “fluent, informal, no fancy stuff” (Hornby, “Laughing”). Mark

Jolly reviewing High Fidelity for The New York Times states: “Plain and simple language --

Mr. Hornby‟s trademark -- is supposed to wrestle the truth from all literary artifice. But as

with pop music itself, beneath the simplicity lies a multitude of nuances”. However, according

to Phelan, Hornby‟s simplistic style may not always work in his favour, “If his prose wasn't so

refreshingly transparent and conversational, and his subject matter so seemingly prosaic, the

sophistication of his enquiries into human nature would be recognised more often”. What

Phelan seems to be suggesting, is that Hornby‟s unpretentious style of writing diminishes the

rich meaning of his text; it is not enough to tell an interesting story since the writer is

expected to simultaneously dazzle readers with his linguistic abilities. Hornby does not share

that opinion: “I do not wish to produce prose that draws attention to itself, rather than the

world it describes” (as qtd. in Hornby, “Middle”). Hornby‟s decision to write a readable text

originates in an idea that nobody is excluded from reading his books:

I think part of the reason I became a writer I became is because of teaching in a school,

and you're always looking for this stuff that is really intelligent but really simple and

everyone can understand it. I always thought Of Mice And Men was such a perfect

book because there's nothing not to understand, but it's still really clever and moving

and complicated, but everybody understands the complication. It doesn't leave

anybody out. I think that's what books should be like. (Hornby, “Laughing”)

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3. Obsession

Both High Fidelity and Juliet, Naked, feature men who are obsessed with pop culture

and live their lives through music, movies and books. These men do not define themselves by

class, wealth or employment, but by their taste in popular culture: impeccable taste, at least in

their own judgement. They then use this taste level to judge the character of other people by

inspecting their cultural preferences. More often than not, these views are voiced to the person

with the offending taste since these men find it their duty to educate the less fortunate.

In Juliet, Naked, Duncan bases his views on other people on their taste in culture and it

is his long-time girlfriend, Annie, who is the main subject of his judgemental outbursts. When

Annie voices her disappointment with Tucker Crowe‟s album, Juliet, Naked, Duncan judges

her harshly “...I‟m so disappointed in you, Annie. I thought you were better than that” (JN

30). And later in the same argument he says to his girlfriend, “I didn‟t say you were a moron.

I said you were a moron if you can‟t hear anything in this” (JN 30). Having read Annie‟s

review of Juliet, Naked, Duncan contemplates, “How had she ever managed to read or see or

listen to anything and come to the right conclusion about its merits?” (JN 41). When Duncan

meets a young fellow fan named Elliot in San Francisco, he quickly decides how inferior the

young man is compared to himself. With great self-importance Duncan thinks, “Elliot has

surely never written about Crowe - or, if he had, the work would almost certainly have been

unpublishable” (JN 30). Such is Duncan‟s arrogance that he diminishes Annie‟s confidence in

her own musical preferences, “Listening to music was something that she did, too, frequently

and with great enjoyment, and Duncan somehow managed to spoil it, partly by making her

feel that she was no good at it” (JN 36).

However, it is not just Duncan who is guilty of cultural snobbery, since Tucker Crowe

does not think highly of those who like his Juliet album. When Annie and Tucker argue about

the merits of the original Juliet album Tucker says, “See ...It‟s like I‟m a chef, and you‟re

Ásmundsson 7

eating in my restaurant, and you‟re telling me how great my food is. But I know I pissed all

over it before I served it up. So, you know, your opinion is valid, but ...” (JN 203). It is an

interesting angle that Hornby offers on cultural snobbery, showing a musician‟s distaste for

the people who like his work. Tucker‟s negative feelings towards his own album are based on

his own actions that make the lyrics on the album less true for him. Consequently, Tucker has

little regard for people who find emotional depth in art that is based on a lie. Annie,

meanwhile, is able to separate the artist from the art, telling Tucker, “You know that bad

people can make great art, don‟t you?” (JN 203), and soon after adds, “It doesn‟t matter how

it came about. You think it was all accidental. But like or not, believe it or not, the music that

Julie inspired was wonderful” (JN 203).

In High Fidelity, the male characters show the same pattern of behaviour as they do in

Juliet, Naked. Rob and his two employees find their self-esteem in their vast knowledge of

pop music, and they have limited patience for people who do not share their enthusiasm.

When a customer asks Barry why he cannot have the Stevie Wonder record he is seeking,

Barry answers, “Because it‟s sentimental, tacky crap, that‟s why not. Do we look like the sort

of shop that sells fucking „I Just Called to Say I Love You,‟ eh? Now, be off with you, and

don‟t waste our time” (HF 53). Barry later adds about the customer, “He offended me with his

terrible taste” (HF 54). Barry uses his most valuable skill, his self-proclaimed superior

cultural knowledge, to demonstrate his worth in the world. The three co-workers have even

established criteria to measure a person‟s seriousness; if one‟s record collection counts fewer

than five hundred records the same person fails to constitute as a serious person (HF 209).

Rob, Barry and Dick have become so isolated in their world of pop culture that they had

“agreed that what really matters is what you like, not what you are like” (HF 117). Rob might

be aware of how isolated from normal life he has become in his obsession, but he feels that he

is relatively normal compared to his quirky employees as evidenced by the following:

Ásmundsson 8

Both Dick and Barry were employed to work part-time, three days each, but shortly

after I‟d taken them on they both started to turn up every day, including Saturdays. I

didn‟t know what to do about it - if they really had nowhere else to go and nothing else

to do, I didn‟t want to, you know, draw attention to it, in case it prompted some sort of

spiritual crisis-so I upped their money a bit and left it at that (HF 41).

Rob makes a further claim for his normalcy in the lonely world of music obsession during a

visit to a club with Barry and Dick, “There are a lot single men here - not single as in

unmarried but single as in no friends” (HF 60).

Rob, Barry and Dick have a different and simpler way of expressing their thoughts on

music than Duncan has with his online Tucker congregation. For Rob and his two employees

the preferred way of measuring the merit of music and perhaps everything else in life is the

top 5 list. The top five does not require arguments of one‟s opinion, a person will be judged

on the quality of the list in question. Rob is as guilty as his employees in coming up with

endless streams of top five lists, but Barry is the real instigator of the practice, as evidenced

by Rob‟s words: “But his conversation is simply enumeration: if he has seen a good film, he

will not describe the plot, or how it made him feel, but where it ranks in his best-of-year list-

he thinks and talks in tens and fives, and as a consequence, Dick and I do too” (HF 42).

Duncan, meanwhile, considers himself a scholar, and the aspirations for the Tucker website

are high: “The bulk of the content, though, consisted of essays analysing lyrics, or discussing

influences, or conjecturing, apparently inexhaustibly, about the silence” (JN 6). Late in the

story he claims to be “a serious scholar” (JN 220), a statement that seems to have little merit

in the minds of Annie and Tucker, although Duncan‟s status on the website is undisputed. The

sensible Annie harbours judgement that appears to have eluded the self-professed Tucker

scholars: “Annie had never really understood how Duncan and his fellow fans could be quite

so certain about tiny private tumults that took place decades ago, but they were” (JN 9), and

Ásmundsson 9

later Tucker‟s own thoughts establish how wrong these people really are (JN 53). The top five

lists of Rob, Barry and Dick may not be deep or clever, but they are a way for them to state

their preferences, and have none of the consequences that the ill-informed writings of Duncan

and his peers have.

The question of proper taste in popular culture is a concern for the men in their

romantic relationships. The termination of Annie‟s and Duncan‟s relationship can be traced to

their different views on the Juliet, Naked album; Annie finally realizing how different she and

Duncan really are. Just as Duncan had always tried to influence Annie with his opinions, Rob

and Dick treat their girlfriends with the same condescension. Dick treats newfound girlfriend,

Anna, to endless lectures on what constitutes as good music so she will become the person he

wants her to be, rather than person she really is. When Dick shares that “Anna‟s a Simple

Minds fan” (HF 160), he is quick to add, “But I think she‟s beginning to understand why she

shouldn‟t be. Aren‟t you?” (HF 160). Rob, though perhaps less dysfunctional than Dick,

demonstrates the same suspecting behaviour towards Laura as is evidenced after their break-

up. Rob tries to return records to Laura which he assumes are hers but she says, “They‟re not

really, though, are they? I know you bought them for me, and that was really sweet of you,

but that was when you were trying to turn me into you” (HF 211). Duncan, Rob and Dick

desperately want to bring their partners up on the same level of pop cultural expertise that

they have claimed to have reached, despite the women‟s own preferences. The ideal woman

for the obsessed man is one who does not disappoint him with her inferior taste.

Duncan has different motives for trying to change Annie into a Tucker enthusiast than

Rob and Dick have for their behaviour towards their girlfriends. Duncan, living in a small

town with few if any kindred spirits, desperately wants Annie to be his pop culture

companion. He harbours no passionate feelings, be they sexual or romantic, towards Annie, so

Duncan seeks to turn Annie into a person that he can share his most important interest with,

Ásmundsson 10

Tucker Crowe. Rob and Barry, meanwhile, don‟t want their girlfriends to be an

embarrassment to them in their little, snobby popular cultural world. They follow an agenda

of changing their girlfriends into people with cultural preferences that are acceptable to their

peers. Rob and Barry prejudicially determine people‟s character on the merit of their taste,

and they know that those around them do the same. Therefore, their girlfriends must be

brought up to their unquestionable level of good taste.

According to Hornby, the world of music obsession is inhabited only by men. In the

cult of Tucker there are certainly no women; obsession is a man‟s sport. When a co-worker

asks Annie if she frequents the Tucker Crowe website, she answers, “No. There are no

women who bother” (JN 37). Annie uses art and more to the point Tucker‟s music to enrich

rather than let it become her life. Hornby mocks this male obsession even further when

Duncan sends Juliet, Naked to the other Tucker fanatics, “Tomorrow morning, a handful of

middle-aged men would be regretting that they had gone to bed much too late” (JN 32). There

is a similar sentiment to Hornby‟s High Fidelity where the protagonist, Rob, states he is able

to run his record store because of the “young men, always young men” who do business with

him (HF 37). The isolated world of music fanaticism is one of no compromise; Rob, Barry,

Dick and Duncan see it as their quest to bring people into their world rather than forsake their

pride and lead more conventional lives.

Both books contain instances where the male characters find themselves in situations

where they believe the best person to provide help in their predicaments is their favourite

musician. Many years too late, Rob realizes that Charlie, who he once thought was the love of

his life, is in fact not the person he thought she was. After listing her faults, he thinks, “What

would Bruce Springsteen make of Charlie?” (HF 193). Duncan finds himself in a situation

where advice is needed, preferably from his idol. Taking the consequences of the affair with

Gina, Duncan is moving out of his former home but has trouble deciding what he should take

Ásmundsson 11

with him. “Not for the first time, Duncan wished that he knew Tucker personally. He would

very much like to ask him what he took with him when he moved out of one life and into

another” (JN 91). Duncan sees Tucker as an expert concerning the aftermath of break-ups

since he has written an album about heartbreak and its consequences. Similarly, Rob thinks

Bruce Springsteen would be an appropriate person to seek advice from, as Springsteen is

famous for writing songs about everyday people facing familiar problems. Hornby does,

however, write about the danger of taking song lyrics too literally in Juliet, Naked, as Tucker

talks about people who have moved to seaside towns “because they had failed to spot the

romanticism and poetic licence in Bruce Springsteen‟s early album [but] ... always came back

appalled by the vulgarity, the malevolence and the drunkenness” (JN 199). People cannot

make the mistake of taking art too literally; the world that the artist depicts is not necessarily

an honest representation of normal life. That is precisely the trap that Duncan, among others,

falls into, when he invests too heavily in the concept of Tucker‟s album Juliet. Songs about

true love gone wrong can make the listeners, who are unable to recognize fact from fiction,

feel like they have not and may not experience that kind of passionate love. The mundane life

of normal people which requires performing difficult tasks every day can seem unglamorous

compared to the life of true love like it is often depicted in popular culture.

The subplots of Juliet, Naked feature men who compulsively follow their interests,

much to the dismay of their wives. Annie‟s attempt to meet a man in Gooleness results in her

meeting with Barnesy, a man obsessed with northern soul dancing, a scene which is in its

dying days. Barnesy, like the other fanatical men in Hornby‟s books, receives little

understanding from his wife, “She hates all-nighters. She hates Northern. She likes bloody ... I

don‟t know. Girls with big hair who‟ve won them talent shows”, before adding, “We‟ve

nothing in common” (JN 138). Similarly obsessive is Terry, the man responsible for the idea

of the museum putting on an exhibition dedicated to Gooleness in 1964, the year the Rolling

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Stones visited the town. Terry, clearly trying to cling on to a happy period in his life, has a

full room of memorabilia from that era. His wife, just like other women in relationships with

obsessed men, does not appreciate Terry‟s collection.

For every one of the men, the reason for the preoccupation seems to stem from their

reluctance to leave behind what once made them happy. They are frightened that they cannot

find similar happiness in something else. Rob prides himself on not changing, that he still

wears the same clothes as he did when he met Laura. The fact that Laura has changed is a sign

of weakness, she is conforming to society‟s wishes; pressure Rob refuses to succumb to.

However, the reality is that Rob secretly wishes that life had not changed from the time that

they met, which was a great time for both of them. However, while she moves on, he cannot.

Similarly, Barnesy and Terry are preoccupied with the periods in their lives when they were

on top of the world. Letting go of this would be to admit that their best days are behind them.

4. Love

In both novels romantic love is portrayed as an uncertain entity rather than the

storybook version when two individuals find true love in each other and live happily ever

after. It could be claimed that for the characters in Hornby‟s books there is no such thing as

true love; everybody doubts their relationships and has difficulty deciding whether they are

with the right person. Certainly, there is attraction and love between people but there is

always doubt about long-term commitment, about whether the person is the right one or not,

or if the right person exists at all. Matters of the heart are what concern Hornby‟s characters

the most, despite changes in time and technology.

In the case of Rob and Laura, their relationship was not founded on feelings of intense

passion, as if they were meant to be together. Reminiscing about the beginnings of the

relationship, Rob says, “I never had any wild crush on her, and that used to worry me about

Ásmundsson 13

the long-term future” (HF 90). Rob‟s passive feelings towards Laura do not fit the Romeo and

Juliet template of the undying love, but rather the contrary as evidenced by Rob‟s words:

“There weren‟t any sleepless nights or losses of appetite or agonizing waits for the phone to

ring for either of us” (HF 91). The question Hornby poses is whether it is possible for a

person to find something resembling real love, and whether people want romantic

relationships to relieve boredom and loneliness; a problem that can be solved by finding a

like-minded person to spend time with rather than being alone.

Hornby does not subscribe to the popular literary notion that two people are made for

each other and are not interested in anyone else. For Rob and Laura there is always

uncertainty whether they think they are right for each other. Discussing the nature of the

relationship, they both admit having thoughts of meeting a new partner (HF 100). Rob‟s main

problem is his vanity; he can cope with a break-up as long as the other individual still wants

him. He is not sure if he wants to spend his life with Laura, but if somebody has to leave, Rob

would prefer it to be him: “I could see her losing interest in me, so I worked like mad to get

that interest back, and when I got it back, I lost interest in her all over again” (HF 102). And

Rob‟s wounded pride is further evidenced by his musings, “When I saw Laura outside the

shop I knew absolutely, without any question at all, that I wanted her again. But that‟s

probably because she‟s the one doing the rejecting” (HF 110). Rob‟s self-esteem is connected

to his fear of being rebuffed by Laura and is evidenced by the expression of his feelings, “In

other words, I‟m unhappy because she doesn‟t want me; if I can convince myself that she

does want me a bit, then I‟ll be OK again, because then I won‟t want her, and I can get on

with looking for someone else” (HF 110). Rob‟s way of thinking regarding the other sex has

put him in a situation where the possibility of a normal, balanced relationship cannot be

reached. If someone loves him back and wants to be with him, he loses interest but if the same

individual shows signs of disinterest, he desperately wants to cling on to her. Rob‟s whole

Ásmundsson 14

problem with the other sex may be traced to his doubts about his own self. His way of dealing

with that insecurity is winning the affection of a woman that seems disinterested in him, and if

he succeeds in his quest, he no longer needs the woman in question. The insecurity that

requires him to seek unattainable women might be the reason why he abandons them when

they show interest; if they like him, a self-proclaimed average man, they are probably not that

special in the first place.

As in Rob and Laura‟s case, the relationship between Annie and Duncan was not

initiated on passionate feelings and has never since been characterized by those terms. In the

beginning they had started to see each other for the sole reason of being with someone rather

than being alone; two new arrivals in a small town, who shared interests but were never in

love. In Annie‟s opinion the reason they stuck together was “their contempt for the town they

lived in, and the people they lived with” (JN 115). After fifteen years of being together there

were few signs of progression in their relationship. “And they had stayed like that for ever,

stuck in a perpetual postgraduate world where gigs and books and films mattered more to

them than they did to other people of their age” (JN 7). Duncan‟s interest in Tucker escalates

over the fifteen year period, to the point that the musician has become a significant presence

in their lives. Annie is co-dependent with Duncan in his over-eager interest in Tucker, and it

is only when she withdraws her support that their relationship starts to crack.

Annie and Duncan‟s strange relationship is difficult to define because it does not have

any of the attributes that make people want to be together. There is no romantic love between

them, although it bothers Annie more than it does Duncan. Contemplating the idea of having a

child, Annie thinks, “She wanted to feel unconditional love, rather than the faint conditional

love affection she could scrape together for Duncan every now and again; she wanted to be

held by someone who would never question the embrace, the why or the who or the how

long” (JN 7). Judging by her feelings, there does not seem to be any logical reason why Annie

Ásmundsson 15

should still be with her partner. Duncan, likewise, has few passionate feelings towards Annie;

however, it does not seem to bother him: “It was OK, Duncan thought, that he and Annie had

never been in love. Theirs had been an arranged marriage, and it had functioned perfectly

well: friends had matched up their interests and temperaments carefully, and they‟d got it

right” (JN 73). For Duncan it was enough to have someone to share his interests with rather

than finding passionate love. Duncan does harbour some passion, but he is more comfortable

experiencing it from the popular culture he consumes instead of wanting it from real life (JN

73-74). Annie and Duncan‟s growing incompatibility is illustrated in Annie‟s thoughts:

“Annie could imagine herself as a mother, but Duncan was nobody‟s idea of a father, and

anyway, neither of them would have felt comfortable applying cement to the relationship in

that way” (JN 7). Many modern couples delay having children in order to establish a career

first, but that is not the reason in Annie and Duncan‟s case. In fact, “The decision not to have

children had never been taken, and nor had there been any discussion resulting in a

postponement of the decision” (JN 7). Annie increasingly wishes to have a child, but their

relationship is not one to base a family on and never was. The only reason they stayed

together for so long is because of Annie‟s apathy, and because Duncan was relatively happy

to have a friend instead of a lover.

Love is not the only important factor lost in Annie and Duncan‟s relationship; there is

little if any sexual attraction between the two and it has been that way from the beginning.

The lack of chemistry between Annie and Duncan is obvious, even to complete strangers. On

their vacation in America they both enter a men‟s toilet in a bar for an innocent reason

connected with the history of Tucker, but catch the attention of the bartender who is

suspicious of their behaviour. However, the barman clearly thought they were not a couple

who would initiate a sexual encounter in there (JN 2). Contemplating her strange relationship,

Annie wonders, “If Tucker was the husband, then Annie should somehow have become the

Ásmundsson 16

mistress, but of course that wasn‟t right – the word was much too exotic and implied a level of

sexual activity that would horrify them both nowadays. It would have daunted them even in

the early days of their relationship” (JN 6). The uneventful sex life of Duncan and Annie

cannot be blamed on Annie‟s disinterest, as evidenced by her revaluation of their fifteen-year-

long relationship, “They had never been the most highly sexed couple, but whoever kept score

of these things would say he‟d turned down her overtures more than she‟d turned down his”

(JN 125).

At the end of both books the main characters find themselves in romantic

relationships, either with new partners or reunited with former lovers. Though it is hinted that

these relationships might last, no certainty is offered. Rob and Laura end up having resumed

their relationship and Rob seems to have matured, though he has a difficult time keeping his

mind from wandering. Annie, however, decides to take a chance on Tucker, a man with a

questionable record where relationships are concerned. Though Hornby does not show it

explicitly, the very end of the book offers great hope for Tucker and Annie; posts from the

message board of Tucker‟s website tell that Tucker has released a new album which contains

songs of happiness, much to the dismay of the fans of the Juliet album. It could be maintained

that Tucker‟s new album is the opposite of his most famous work, and a likely interpretation

is that he and Annie are happy together and in her he has found a reason to start writing songs

again. Duncan‟s affair with Gina is left unresolved, they are still together when the book ends

but a glimpse into the mind of Duncan shows that he feels he acted with too much haste when

he decided to sleep with her (JN 213). However, because Gina is enthusiastic both about

Duncan and Tucker‟s music, he might feel that time is better spent with her than being alone.

She could replace Annie in a passive relationship functioning as protection against boredom

and the inferior people of Gooleness.

Ásmundsson 17

5. Technology

In the years that have passed between the publications of High Fidelity and Juliet,

Naked, the world has seen significant changes in technology, especially in ways of

communication. These changes may have altered certain aspects of modern life, but they do

not provide answer for the characters‟ most vital questions, concerning love and happiness.

High Fidelity is written and takes place just before the Internet became commonplace. Juliet,

Naked, however, is a contemporary story where the characters use computers as a place where

people share and seek information, communicate, and find and listen to music. The book uses

certain aspects of the Internet to introduce information to the reader. Hornby writes a realistic

Wikipedia entry for the fictional Tucker Crowe, which features both correct and incorrect

information about its subject. Also, Tucker and Annie‟s initial relationship is depicted through

their e-mail correspondence. Furthermore, the book cleverly ends with forum posts that show

that Tucker Crowe has released a new album not favoured by once loyal fans.

The different ways in which Rob and Duncan consume music illustrate the changes

that have taken place in the music industry in the time between the two books. While the CD

format was taking over the market in the time of High Fidelity, it is still vinyl and the cassette

Rob and his contemporaries prefer. Fast forward to 2009 and music in digital format has

become the choice of the market, even CDs have given way to computers and MP3 players.

Annie likes the technology that modern life has brought her as evidenced by her thoughts:

“She wasn‟t, she liked to think, a nostalgic, or a Luddite. She preferred her iPod to Duncan‟s

old vinyl, she enjoyed having hundreds of TV channels to choose from, and she loved her

digital camera” (JN 20). Similarly, Duncan welcomes the changes in the way music can be

delivered:

Because it meant that recorded music wasn‟t, as he previously always

understood, a thing at all – a CD, a piece of plastic, a spool of tape. You could

Ásmundsson 18

reduce to its essence, and its essence was literally intangible. This made the

music better, more beautiful, more mysterious, as far he was concerned. People

who knew of his relationship with Tucker expected him to be a vinyl nostalgic,

but the new technology had made his passions more romantic, not less. (JN 26)

Rob, however, is not just emotionally attached to the music, as the records themselves

also play a big part in his enthusiasm. “Is it so wrong, wanting to be at home with your record

collection?” (HF 83), muses Rob at one point, illustrating how intense his interest is. He is

able to connect his albums to a certain period in his life and at one time reorganizes his

collection in the order he acquired them (HF 54). Rob, Barry and Dick‟s interest is not merely

exhausting for the time it takes for them to listen to the music, but also all the extra-curricular

activities that are associated with it, organizing the collection, taping albums and, of course,

making mix-tapes. Today‟s technology has made these tasks either obsolete, or at least much

less time consuming. It is interesting to consider whether Rob and his co-workers would have

liked this progress or if they would prefer music in a physical format with a certain smell and

touch, as well as the accompanying artwork.

Another aspect that has been lost with music being bought and downloaded online is

the human interaction that happens between people at the record store. Although Hornby

depicts the music fans as lonely and sometimes strange men, they at least come in direct

human contact when seeking new music at the record store. Of course, people can seek like-

minded individuals on the Internet but it also puts a certain limit on the communication. It

lacks the direct confrontation of when people meet in person, not to mention the certainty of

knowing that people are who they say they are. As Rob describes his employees it is easy to

see what has been lost with the digitalization of music. “Dick is as patient and as enthusiastic

and as gentle as a primary school teacher: he sells people records they didn‟t know they

wanted because he knows intuitively what they should be” (HF 97). “Barry, meanwhile,

Ásmundsson 19

simply bulldozes customers into submission” (HF 97). It is difficult to imagine that a record

store, such as Championship Vinyl, could have survived the technological revolution of the

Internet, and consequently, what men like Rob, Barry and Dick would do in the aftermath.

With their vast knowledge of pop music, perhaps the only outlet for their wisdom would be

the Internet.

That is indeed the case in Juliet, Naked when Duncan creates a website dedicated to

Tucker Crowe. There, Duncan and the other Crowe fanatics exchange information, theories

and other thoughts on the music and the life of their idol, resulting in them having more in

common with each other rather than the people they share their real lives with. The internet

dramatically changes Duncan‟s fascination with Crowe. Before he would sporadically meet

fellow fans but “now the nearest fans lived in Duncan‟s laptop, and there were hundreds of

them, from all around the world, and Duncan spoke to them all the time” (JN 6). However, it

is not only the time they spend online, but also the effort they have put into coming up with

their theories, prompting Annie to tell Duncan: “I know „Get a life‟ is a cliché. But if these

people actually had anything to do all day, they wouldn‟t have time to write his lyrics out

backwards to see if there were any hidden messages in them” (JN 106).

For Duncan, the internet serves both as source of liberation and isolation. On his

website he gets in touch with people who share his admiration of Tucker Crowe. There

Duncan is able to act as a big fish in a really small pond, but as his attention increasingly turns

towards Tucker to prove his worth on the website, his ability to connect to those around him

diminishes. As he digs further and further into Tucker‟s life and work, the only people he is

able to converse with are other specialists on the same subject. Duncan prefers to interact with

people on the Internet for it does not require as much from him as regular friendship. There he

can control the closeness of the relationships he has with the people he meets. In real life

Duncan is reluctant to meet new people in case he would put himself in a situation beyond his

Ásmundsson 20

control: “Duncan and Annie had never made any friends on holiday: Duncan was always

terrified of speaking to anybody, in case they should „get stuck‟” (JN 21). This does not apply

only to holidays but his everyday life. Communicating with other Tucker fans on the website

gives him a chance to express himself without the possibility of allowing people to get too

close to him, but at the same time it decreases his skills in having functional relationships with

other people in real life. His priorities are evidenced by his actions; he makes sure that his

iPod is fully charged while the mobile phone‟s empty battery is a later inconvenience (JN 22).

Listening to music is more important than being available for those who may want to reach

him. The iPod provides Duncan with further shelter from people who might want to approach

him, while the mobile phone does the exact opposite; it decreases Duncan‟s control over his

communication with other people.

Juliet, Naked also touches on the questionable authenticity of some on the information

on the web. Though the fans frequenting the Tucker Crowe fansite take themselves very

seriously and write earnest essays about Tucker‟s music, their knowledge about his personal

life is very limited as evidenced by Tucker‟s own thoughts: “And just about every single scrap

of the biographical trivia about him that floated around the internet like so much space-junk

was all untrue, as far as he could tell” (JN 53). The measures the fans take to gain the

information they crave go well beyond what can be considered normal and are more similar to

the ways of the paparazzi and the tabloids; showing that although the fans claim to seriously

value Tucker‟s art, they are still incapable of separating their fascination with his art from

their worship of him. What increases the fans‟ interest in Tucker is the uncertainty

surrounding his retirement and his life ever since. Tucker, with his reluctance to share

information about his life, has gained a mythical status amongst his followers and an image

that has nothing in common with the real man.

Ásmundsson 21

However, Hornby‟s story also shows the Internet‟s positive features. The relationship

between Annie and Tucker is initiated online and illustrates that through the Internet, two

like-minded people from different continents are able to find each other, although it is by pure

chance. For Annie, meeting a potential lover in her small town with an aging population is

quite difficult as her efforts have proven and therefore the Internet proves useful to her.

Ironically, Annie and Tucker meet through Tucker‟s fansite, a webpage that Tucker dislikes

as much as the people that contribute to it. Still, Tucker finds the time to read the content of

the website. Strangely he does not use this technology to keep in touch with his children, who

are scattered around the world, calling into question his priorities in life.

6. Women

The female characters in Hornby‟s books are figures of responsibility, especially

compared to the immature and careless men. Both Laura and Annie want grown-up lives,

while their partners are stuck searching for a dream that eluded them a long time ago. This

friction creates a gap in their relationships as the males are unable to find the maturity to seek

the opportunities which are there for the taking, if only they could be bothered. While the men

may not be happy with their lives, they lack the ability to find courage to seek alternative

ways of happiness. Although Rob, Duncan and Tucker often gain the sympathy of the reader

it is often difficult to understand why their partners are attracted to them.

High Fidelity demonstrates the difference between the males and the females; the

women are able to change their course in life while their spouses idly watch as life passes by.

Rob‟s inability to change, rather than Laura‟s success, is the reason the two have split up in

the beginning of the novel. Laura tries to open Rob‟s eyes to the fact that he has become stuck

in a rut and that only he can make the necessary changes: “I‟m just trying to wake you up. I‟m

just trying to show that you‟ve lived half your life, but all you‟ve got to show for it you might

Ásmundsson 22

as well be nineteen, and I‟m not talking about money or property or furniture” (HF 267).

However, she does not only draw attention to what is wrong, she also shows how easily he

could improve himself: “You have all the basic ingredients. You‟re really very likable, when

you put your mind to it. You make people laugh, when you can be bothered, and you‟re kind,

and when you decide you like someone then that person feels as though she‟s the center of the

whole world, and that‟s a very sexy feeling. It‟s just that most of the time you can‟t be

bothered” (HF 265).

Later, Laura adds Rob should be more proactive, saying “Something more than

waiting for life to change and keeping your options open” (HF 266). Rob finds the fact that he

stayed the same a mark of respect while the others who changed have somehow sold out.

Talking to Laura he mentions that they used be the same people but are not anymore: “You

were the sort of person that came to the Groucho and I was the sort of person that played the

records. You wore leather jackets and T-shirts, and so did I. And I still do, and you don‟t”

(HF 270). Laura has made the necessary changes to meet the demands of the law profession

and Rob finds it difficult to accept that people have to conform to certain professional

demands to prosper in adult life. This friction between Rob and Laura is not diminished by the

fact that Laura is a successful lawyer earning good money while Rob is struggling with his

record shop, and has accepted money from Laura to make ends meet. Hornby illustrates here

the progress that has been made in the equality of the sexes. No longer can the man expect to

be more successful professionally than the woman. For men of Rob‟s generation that is a big

change, as they grew up with the idea that the man was supposed to provide for the family.

Unlike their fathers, Rob and his generation do not have a concrete notion of what their role is

as males in modern society, which can explain their refusal to grow up.

The same sentiments about the rationality of women are repeated in Juliet, Naked.

Annie‟s vision of the world is much broader than that of Duncan, whose views become

Ásmundsson 23

narrower as he sinks deeper into his Tucker obsession. On their vacation in the United States,

Duncan is only interested in things connected with Tucker while Annie wants to visit more

conventional landmarks. This reflects their differences. Annie wants her life to progress as she

is unhappy with current conditions, but Duncan is still living the life of the college student.

The status he has on the Tucker website and living in a small town where he feels superior to

everyone else has led Duncan to overestimate his intelligence. “He knew nothing about

anything, and she‟d never really allowed herself to notice until now” (JN 36), are Annie‟s

thoughts after she and Duncan fight about the merits of Juliet, Naked. And she continues with

her critique of Duncan, “She‟d always thought that his passionate interest in music and film

and books indicated intelligence, but of course it didn‟t have to indicate anything of the sort,

if he constantly got the wrong end of the stick” (JN 36). Duncan does, however, swallow his

pride with regard to his view on Juliet, Naked, and later receives a further blow when his new

lover, Gina, challenges him on the meaning of Tucker‟s lyrics which causes him to think,

“Maybe he‟d spent too long translating something that had been written in English all the

time” (JN 192). This sentence could apply to the way Duncan has been living his life, though

he is only thinking it in terms of Tucker‟s art. Duncan‟s arrogance has made him believe that

he is an all-knowing authority on Tucker Crowe, and while he has encyclopaedic knowledge

of his idol, he lacks the insight that most others seem to have. His view, both on Tucker and

life in general, has become so narrow that he is unable to see the big picture. It is telling that

Hornby lets a woman challenge Duncan on his lyric interpretation rather than one of the men

from the website, because both Annie and Gina have critical skills that have escaped Duncan.

Tucker, just like his biggest fan, is a man with many faults and is fully dependent on

the many women in his life. His life is very complicated as he has five children with four

different women, three of whom have raised four of his children without much help from him.

Only to his youngest child, Jackson, has he been a real father, but then again Jackson‟s

Ásmundsson 24

mother, Cat, is left with the responsibility of providing for the family: “Cat, like your average

American dad, hadn‟t seen much of Jackson since the first six months of his life. She‟d been

too busy keeping food on the table” (JN 94). Without employment since he retired from the

music business and suffering from alcoholism for most of that time, Tucker has not been the

ideal partner for the women in his life.

The women in these two novels by Hornby differ from the men in the way they

understand the surrounding world. They know that compromises have to be made, and

growing up means discarding the youthful ideals the men want to cling to forever. It could be

claimed that both Anna and Laura have relationships with men who are not good enough for

them, and that this is the women‟s biggest weakness. Both Rob and Duncan arrogantly try to

change their partners into a female version of themselves and it is only when the women leave

them that they are able to see the error of their ways. However, the women do somehow see

the potential in these flawed men as proven by Laura and Rob‟s reunion and Annie‟s falling

in love with Tucker, a man with a questionable past regarding relationships. Despite the

imperfection of the male characters, they still manage to capture the reader‟s empathy and

Lucy Kellway articulates the reason behind this: “This is the thing about Hornby. He fixes on

people who don‟t get, and possibly don‟t even deserve, much sympathy and then he

sympathises with them. This is where much of the genius in his writing lies: to be funny and

nasty is easy; to be funny and nice is much harder”. It might surprise many that Hornby, a lad

lit writer, shows women in more favourable light than men. Furthermore, what causes the

women‟s unhappiness in their relationships is the men‟s inability to act as adults and take

responsibility. Rob, Duncan and Tucker are all at a less than desirable place when they are

introduced, but all of them show signs of changing for the better, and as the stories come to an

end there is hope for them all.

Ásmundsson 25

7. Conclusion

Nick Hornby‟s novels, High Fidelity and Juliet, Naked, illustrate that the Internet has

had impact on modern life, but it has not changed basic human behaviour and desires. These

two novels can be used as documents on life before and after the Internet because of the

similarity of their themes; a similarity highlighted by critics upon the publication of Juliet,

Naked. The same critics do not, however, agree on the merits of Hornby‟s simple style, which

he uses in both novels. While some praise the lucid text provided by Hornby, others feel that

it betrays the depth of the prose.

The novels‟ most notable denominator is the obsession which the male characters in

both stories suffer from. Obsession is a recurring theme for Hornby, and he shows how both

Rob and Duncan become isolated because of their ailment. The Internet allows Duncan to

communicate with fellow enthusiasts while at the same time it separates him from his loved

ones. While Hornby is eager to show how the Internet can further isolate the obsessed, he

does not shy away from revealing its positive features as highlighted by Annie and Tucker‟s

inter-continental relationship which was instigated on the Web.

The dream of love, happiness and living a good life is what concerns Hornby‟s

characters the most and Hornby shows that the quest for these elusive goals is never

straightforward. True love as portrayed in the story of Romeo and Juliet is not shown to be

attainable in these two novels. In Hornby‟s world love is messy, complicated and full of

uncertainties. What prevents people from succeeding in romantic relationships is the

difference between men and women‟s level of maturity, as women take responsibility while

men obsess over trivial things. It is interesting that despite Hornby‟s reputation as a lad lit

writer, he paints women in a far more favourable light than men. The male characters are

dependent on the women in their lives to make the necessary changes in order to get their

lives back on track. Meanwhile, Hornby‟s condemnation of the obsessive male does not mean

Ásmundsson 26

that people should not have interests; what he is implying is that people should not let their

hobbies take over their lives, and least of all lead their lives through their interests as Rob and

Duncan do with music.

If there is a moral to High Fidelity and Juliet, Naked it is that people can never allow

themselves to become complacent and that success requires hard work. Nothing ever happens

unless people apply themselves, and that is especially true for love. Technology may change

how people conduct their communication, but it does not change who they are.

Ásmundsson 27

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